Cavan comeback is too much for the Down Minors in Ulster quarter-final

Down exited the Minor Ulster ​Championship on Saturday at a sunny Kingspan Breffni Park at the hands of Cavan who proved too strong in the second half.

The turning point of the match came in the second half when a sending off saw Cavan reduced to 14 men.

Down had built on a three point half-time lead to make it four at that stage with an 0-8 to 0-4 advantage but rather than spur them on to take charge of the game, Benny Coulter’s side, thwarted also by a high wide count, saw their opponents galvanise with a ruthless fourth quarter. They battled back to score 1-9 while Down could only find two more points.

Cavan came into this game on the back of a six-point defeat to Tyrone in Round 2 following on from victory over Derry in Round 1 while Down made it past Derry by two points in the qualifiers after a defeat to Monaghan in the preliminary round.

So it was all to play for and that made for a nervy start with plenty of misses and mistakes early on.

Cavan's Mark Reilly opened the scoring in the seventh minute and their goalkeeper and captain Cian McConnell converted a ‘45 to double the lead.

Down struggled to find the target with wides from Sam Murdock, goalkeeper Callum Travers and Eoghan Convie but the team soon settled when Convie sent a superb two-pointer over the bar to level proceedings with 16 minutes on the clock and seconds later Dylan Kelly pointed to give Down a lead that they would not relinquish until that fateful last quarter.

The wide count continued to clock up however and that proved as costly as the Cavan resurgence.

John Donohue squared the match again but Down finished the half strongly with Convie converting a free and in stoppage time Travers nailed a monster free from beyond the '45 to give his side a 0-6 to 0-3 lead at the break.

Travers continued where he left off after the restart with another free from outside the arc to extend Down's lead to five points. Another few misses from Down followed before Faolan Graham scored Cavan's first point of the half to make it 0-8 to 0-4.

Midway through the half Sam Maguire was sent off for Cavan with a second yellow but their response was immense and a game-changer.

They began the comeback with points from Jake Brady and McConnell but that was just the start of the purple patch as two more two point fees from McConnell a goal and a point from Jake Brady and further unanswered scores from Donagh Lynch and Nathan Quigley before Convie stopped the rot with a free.

Down had a goal chance in stoppage time with a close range free but the ball finished over the bar and Cavan were already out of sight by then winning 1-13 to 0-10.

MATCH STATS

Cavan: C McConnell 0-6 (1'45, 2tpf); D Brady, S Brady, A Smart; M Smith, H McMullen, J Donohue 0-1; S Maguire, F Graham 0-1; M Reilly 0-1, J Brady 1-2, C Smith; D Lynch 0-1, N Quigley 0-1, (1f), D Brouder

Subs: R Dolan for Brouder (h-t), K Heery for Smith (40), S Smith for Reilly (43), M Mulvey for Quigley (59), F Devin for Brady (60)

Down: C Travers 0-4 (2tpf); C Treanor, B Magowan, J O'Mahony; R Austin, D McFerran, J Kerr; D Doyle, K Clerkin; T Foyle, D Kelly 0-1, J O'Neill; R O'Hare 0-1, E Convie 0-4 (1tp, 2f), S Murdock

P McGovern for Murdock (h-t), O McHugh for Kelly (40), JJ O'Hare for O'Neill (48), G Barry for McFerran (55)

Referee: James Lewis (Fermanagh)